A Catholic Blog
A priest writing reflections on theology, philosophy, and Catholicism. I'll occasionaly write movie reviews, rants, and discussion topics. I write from my experiences, personal and intellectual, for my benefit and yours (should you get any from it). None of what I write is official or representative of my diocese or parish, just my semi-public attempt at figuring things out and sharing it with you for the sake of dialogue.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

The Early Church I-1: History and Morality

(This is the first part of a presentationgiven on 4/23/2013. This is the extended version. The shorter, presentation version will be the last piece posted after some time for revision.)

(Part II is now out! Since this is part I, I'll just link to II-1. If you're interested and enjoy this series, please see the next parts.)

Prologue

The early Church for many Christians
is something that receives little attention. Many see the early
Church as a people who were persecuted by the Roman empire and
eventually rose to prominence after Christianity was legalized in 313
AD. While these persecutions were very real and Christianity really
did triumph, the early Church has a rich history while at the same
time a very human history. This is not a bad thing, however, for the
mission of the Church is the interaction with sinful humanity in
hopes of redeeming it. The Church, the Body of Christ, is both human
and divine—a great mystery, and one worth entering.

Throughout our Catholic history there
are been great saints and great sinners, both sorts have been at the
highest office in our Church. This should not give us reason to
believe that the Church is purely man-made, however, but it rather
speaks to the whole history and situation of Israel that came before
us. God saw fit to use both good and wicked men to effect His
designs, both enemies and anointed leaders (e.g., both good: 2 Kings
22:10-13, 18-20; Ruth 3: 13-17. And the bad: Isaiah 10:5-13; 1 Kings
11). Good men and women drew others to God by their example and
obedience to both Jesus and Church. Wicked men and women served as an
example that drove people away from vice and led to God by different
paths. When power becomes addictive men will abuse power. As a
result, those who love the Lord will strive to live heroic humility.
Great sinners inspire saints to be even greater.

May we all grow to love the Church in
a greater capacity for she is the bride of Christ. Christ's promise
has been held since he proclaimed it: the powers of hell have not
prevailed against the Church. Even in the midst of corruption and sin
she has been protected and safeguarded. Pray that one day we might
all be one.

Part I: History

I.AJew and Gentile

The Catholic Church began in Jerusalem
(cf. Acts 1:8, 12) which was a part of the Roman Empire. The
Apostles, filled with the Spirit at Pentecost then proceeded to
preach the name of Jesus to everyone. Their word spread very quickly
and they put a fire in a great number of people from Jews to
Gentiles. How Christianity spread was unique to both the Jews and the
Gentiles.

For the Jews who came to
believe, they followed the prophets and the law of Moses faithfully.
They recognized that Jesus was the “suffering servant” as
proclaimed by Isaiah nearly 700 years before (Is 42 – 43:12).
Similarly, the words and actions of Christ were prefigured in many
other utterances by the prophets. These Jews joined the Apostles as
followers of Christ. The Jews had the benefit of a rich symbolism,
culture, understanding of God, and history of their people to aid
their understanding and faith. The Gospel of Matthew is the first
precisely because it is meant to bridge the history of Israel with
the advent of Christ who is a continuation of that history. This is
why Paul said salvation came to all who believed, but “for Jew
first, then Greek [i.e., Gentile]” (Rom 1:16). The Jews who
accepted Christ could accept Him more fully at this time.

Simeon, a sage of Israel, receives the Messiah whom he has long waited for. Many of the greatest first-generation bishops were Jewish-born and expounded beautifully on Scripture when explaining Christ to both Jew and Gentile.

How the Gentiles (that is,
everyone else) were converted was a different story. Many did not
believe that the Hebrew Scriptures were inspired, nor were they aware
of the history of Israel or salvation. This was not a disadvantage,
however, because Christians were now to carry on the mission Israel
had been given, to be “a light to the Gentiles” (Is 49:6b, Acts
14:47). In order to convince the Gentiles it must be done with deeds.
In this manner, the early Christians could not rely on words, but
rather the very life they led (or bled) would be the proof behind
their words. It echoed James who said “I will demonstrate my faith
to you from my works” (James 2:18). Likewise, Peter had told his
followers to “always be ready to give an explanation who asks you
for a reason for your hope” (1 Pet 3:15). This attitude, showing
Christ to the world by our deeds, inspired Ignatius of Antioch when
he said, “Whenever Christianity is hated by the world, what counts
is not the power of persuasion, but greatness” (Letter to the
Romans 3:3).

The Romans at this time had enjoyed a
great period of peace and prosperity. As they gathered more gods to
their pantheon, which was their practice when they conquered a people
or territory, their religion became more convoluted.

The culture, likewise, was one of
leisure and experimentation. Since a large portion of the manual
labor in the Empire was done by slaves many Romans occupied their
times with education and entertainment. Many opted for entertainment
in the form of blood sports, drinking, and gambling. As time
progressed many began to grow weary of the of local religious
practices and sought out exotic practices and cults. For the Roman
citizen, then, religion was either an exercise of bland mechanism or
dangerous extremism. A large number of Roman men and women believed
in gods out of tradition or compulsion. To others still it was just
folklore.

Many of these Romans, however, were
tired of the indulgent, apathetic, and impulsive culture that
surrounded them. Educated and noble Romans sought out “schools”
which were philosophical communities that proposed a particular way
of life. Some such schools were the Stoics, the Epicureans, and the
Neo-Platonists. While each had their merits and preached moderation,
self-control, and intellectual contemplation none of them were
particular concerned with the spiritual. The “spiritual” for them
was intellectual and personal. If there were gods, they didn't care
about humanity. The gods enjoyed higher things and if they truly were
gods they would find pleasure in temporal, human affairs. Many of
these schools of thought were concerned with ascending humanity or
accepting the human condition with a sort of defeated-resignation.

I.B: Morality

When Christianity entered the scene it
was something familiar yet entirely exotic. Christians proclaimed a
man who was killed as a criminal-revolutionary as God. They claimed
that there was one God, that He was a personal God who lowered
Himself for the sake of His people. His son “took the form of a
slave” (Phil 2:7) and gave his flesh to eat. While this sounded
like the extremism that Romans were wary of many onlookers took note
of the unusual moral strictness of these Christians. They fasted and
denied their bodies overindulgence in pleasures, they prayed at
regular intervals, they cared for those who were sick, they cared for
widows, and they cared for all those who came to them. Justin Martyr,
a 2nd century saint, wrote that “Straightaway a flame
was kindled in my soul; and a love of the prophets, and of those men
who are friends of Christ, possessed me; and whilst revolving his
words in my mind, I found this philosophy alone to be safe and profitable" (Dialogue with Trypho, sec. 8). What attracted Justin and men like him to Christianity was a
Christian's perseverance in suffering and the joy they found, even in
death.

Justin, like many other educated men of his day, were not looking for an amusing philosophy but for a way of life that led to happiness and allowed one to face trial with courage.

Christianity did not see humanity as
wicked, but it also saw humanity as lacking—something experience
makes readily apparent to us. They held that “In the beginning He
made the human race with the power of thought and choosing the truth
and acting rightly, so that all people are without excuse before God;
for they have been born capable of exercising reason and
intelligence" (1st Apology, sec. 28). While Christians believed in many strange and mysterious things they
also conducted themselves in the world with reason, moderation, and
order—something that would pique the interest of someone looking
for order and meaning in their life.

One
such example of this strange belief was the virtue of loving one's
enemy. Ignatius of Antioch, a bishop of the 2nd
century, instructs others to “pray unceasingly for the rest of men,
for they offer ground for hoping that they may be converted and win
their way to God. Give them an opportunity therefore, at least by
your conduct, of becoming your disciples. Meet their angry outbursts
with your own gentleness, their boastfulness with your humility, …
[and] their error with your constancy in the faith; beware of trying
to match their example" (Letter
to the Ephesians, sec. 10). A Christian not only expressed common, everyday virtues
that were accepted. They practiced exemplary virtue in the face of
injustice, ridicule, and death. This sort of courage, a well-regarded
virtue for a Roman, could not come from one who was deluded but from
someone who really did possess a sort of divine inspiration.

We
have records of what early Christians were taught in the form of
handbooks and catechisms. One of the earliest “handbooks” was the
Didache, or “The
Teachings of the Twelve Apostles.” A short excerpt of its teaching
will suffice: “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not corrupt children; you shall not be sexually immoral;
you shall not steal; you shall not practice magic; you shall not
engage in sorcery; you shall not abort a child or commit infanticide
… You shall not hate any one; instead you shall reprove some, and
pray for some, and some you shall love more than your own life”
(Didache 2:2, 7).

Strengthening this sentiment Christians
were further distinguished by living in such a manner that did not
destroy a culture but transformed it. This has been a hallmark of
Catholic history: maintain what is good and sacred in another culture
but order it to God. We may see the wisdom of the Didache echoed in
The Epistle to Diognetus, written in the mid-to-late 2nd
century, which recounts that the Christians “[inhabit] Greek as
well as barbarian cities … and [follow] the customs of the natives
in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct
… they marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do
not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a
common bed” (cf. Ep. Diognetus 5:1-6)

Socially, the
Roman world respected women if they were noble or wealthy, but
typically they were considered as property (at least if they were
inconvenient). Children were not respected in either Jewish or
Gentile communities. In most philosophical and cultural traditions
men were the pure embodiment of humanity while women, children, and
slaves were weak derivations of humanity. Christians, however,
claimed that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all
one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). With regard to husbands and wives
St. Paul taught “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for
Christ. … So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own
bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself” (Eph 5:21, 28).

This attracted a large number of women,
both noble and common, to the Church. Children also followed because
they were instructed as ones with equal dignity to their elders. Many
children of this period were exposed to the elements and beasts if
the father of a household did not want them. Christians routinely
sought out the places where families would abandon their children and
rescue them, raising them as their own. Justin Martyr also recounts,
“We have been taught that to expose newly born infants is the work
of wicked people; firstly because we see that almost all those
exposed, not only the girls but also the boys, are growing up in
prostitution" (1st Apology, sec. 27). So on top of preserving the lives of children, they also sought to
protect them from predators and those who raised these children as
sex slaves and sub-human objects. Slaves were accepted as brothers
and sisters, whether they were freed or not. That Christians
considered man, no matter who, dignified was one of the primary
causes of Christianity's favorable reception.

With this foundation in place, namely
the word of God coming to many, we will not see what the Church
looked like in these circumstances—how was it formed and governed?
What is “Tradition” as Catholics describe it, and in what manner
do we say we are “universal”? We shall pick up these topics in
Part II: Organization of the Church.

======

This was a presentation given to a group of 40 parishioners as part of a adult-education series on the Early Church. The hope is to generate discussion but more so I hope to inspire others to learn about the zeal of our early faith, to be confident in the history of the Church, to proclaim her with intelligence and patience, and to teach our children and fellow adults the Truth of Christ by understanding the divinity and humanity of our Church.